In this day and age, it’s rare we experience a warm fuzzy feeling when we boot up X (formerly known as Twitter, of course).
But the past few days have been lovely: our feed is full of people talking about DriveClub again.
The discussion started when someone posted a clip of the game and its infamous rain effects. The caption reads: “Still can’t believe this is a 12 year old game.”
Okay, so this is video games, and the discussion isn’t all positive.
Some are using the clip to argue that devs have got lazy, considering what Evolution was able to achieve on the PS4 (at 1080p, 30ps we’d stress). Others are claiming that the racer was all good looks and little substance.
But by and large, fans are just remembering a really good game.
If you’ll recall, DriveClub went through a series of mishaps. Originally intended as a launch game – it was the first PS4 title this author tried, at a press event prior to the console’s release – it arrived over a year later, a little undercooked.
At a time when most racing games were going open world, this fusion of simulation and arcade felt ancient with its track-based format and simplistic single player campaign. It’s interesting because we think that would be much better received these days.
Anyway, Evolution continued to develop the game, adding in the aforementioned rain effects, tons of cars, and even motorcycles. It went on to become a fan favourite that’s fondly remembered today.
There was even a PSVR version, released after the Runcorn-based devs unfortunate closure, which lacked the visual fidelity of the main game but was still a lot of fun to play.
Unfortunately, it’s been a tricky 20 or so years for racing game devs. While Gran Turismo, Forza Horizon, and Mario Kart have gone from strength-to-strength, it’s left very little room for anything else.
We recently praised Milestone’s new anime racer Screamer, but it doesn’t look like it’s sold particularly well. SEGA has also complained about the performance of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, which deserves better as well.
Evolution probably never stood a chance in this environment, then, which is sad. But we’ll always have our memories of DriveClub, an underappreciated racer that deserved more respect.